The world's most popular singer by record sales and a box-office success in Hollywood, Presley died alone at Graceland in August 1977 at age 42 after expressing doubts about whether he would ever find love again.
Elvis was not only the "dangerous, sexy new American dream of 1956," he was also "the fat, sweaty and sequined" embodiment of how badly it seemed to have gone wrong by the early 1970s, said Robert Thompson, director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University.
"Once you get away from the sacred space surrounding the Elvis myth at Graceland, you realize that one of his greatest legacies is kitsch," Thompson said.
UP THE DRIVEWAY AT GRACELAND
Other academics have argued that Presley's rags-to-riches rise resonates today because it touches on the familiar themes of the American dream -- and the limits of material wealth.
"Elvis, the consumer supreme, was consumed, both before and after his death," novelist Bobbie Ann Mason wrote in her 2003 biography "Elvis Presley."
Tens of thousands of Elvis fans braved sweltering heat on Wednesday and Thursday to mark the anniversary of his death in a candlelight vigil -- an event that has grown bigger over the three decades since he died.
Karal Ann Marling, wrote in her 1994 take on the Elvis myth, "Graceland: Going Home with Elvis" that the vigil was a way for fans to mediate on their own losses and disappointments.
"About how we believed things would turn out right, and how they seldom did," she wrote. "About the pleasure of getting things you'd always wanted and how the feeling fizzled out in emptiness ... The trip up the driveway is all about a little hard-won wisdom."
Many Elvis fans at Graceland for the week-long tribute organized by his estate offered a simpler view of why they keep coming back year after year: each other.
"I think it's the aura," said Cheryl Shannon, 50, of Cincinnati. "It's like a family reunion."
Standing nearby Matt Sutherland, 42, finished the thought: "It's like a family reunion where you don't know anyone."
